A report by Richard Johnson for Jamaica’s Observer.
World-renowned Jamaican jazz pianist Monty Alexander can be particular visitor and among the many honorees at this 12 months’s staging of the Jamaica Poetry Competition, set for the AC Resort in St Andrew on August 14.
The Grammy-nominated musician will be part of a trove of different musicians and poets on the competition which returns to the occasions calendar after having to resort to digital stagings for the previous two years as a result of pandemic.
Conceptualiser of the Jamaica Poetry Competition Yasus Afari informed the Jamaica Observer that he was happy to have an artiste of the calibre of Alexander agree to look on his occasion.
“I first met Monty Alexander about 30 years in the past and I keep in mind how taken I used to be along with his humility…there was one thing about his spirit that basically touched me and inhabited my thoughts. For years I’ve been attempting to trace him down after which it occurred and he turned out to be the whole lot I perceived him to be and extra and I knew I wished him on the competition.”
Alexander types a part of a protracted line of musical and literary icons who’ve carried out and been honoured by the workforce from the Jamaica Poetry Competition. Final 12 months grasp guitarist Ernie Ranglin was the primary honouree on the competition.
“We have now at all times tried to honour probably the most deserving. Once you take a look at this man’s work…he’s named among the many high 5 pianists on the earth. I simply assume right here in Jamaica we don’t rejoice our greats sufficient. However it is a man whose impression is felt the world over. We’re presenting him with the award of honour, however in reality the honour is ours,” Yasus Afari informed the Jamaica Observer.
Along with Alexander, the occasion’s stage can be shared with Skip Marley, grandson of reggae icon Bob Marley, who’s making a reputation for himself. Former Poet Laureate of Jamaica Professor Mervyn Morris, musicologist Marjorie Whylie, poet Dr Michael Abrahams, US-based Ghanian Ebony Payne, 16-year-old highschool pupil Samoya Banton, poet Kai Falconer, violinist Mark Stephenson, grasp drummer Calvin Mitchell, and the Poet Laureate of Canada George Elliot Clarke.
A couple of new parts have been added to this years competition. Yasus Afari defined that the disabled group have lengthy held a particular place in his coronary heart. So this 12 months in tandem with various particular curiosity teams, the Jamaica Poetry Competition will will embody a particular dinner that includes a presentation titled Voice for the Unvoiced. This can included signing for the listening to impaired.
The competition will kick off with a artistic writing workshop, in addition to an artwork
exhibit that includes the works of various artists together with Neville Garris and Professor Clinton Hutton.
Yasus Afari famous that the reception to this 12 months’s competition have been nothing in need of coronary heart warming.
“It has simply been humbling; I’m simply grateful. In 2020 and 2021 we needed to go digital. That was simply the way it needed to be carried out. We adopted all the federal government protocols and staged the occasion, drawing on poets from the world over, and we had been capable of get individuals from various international locations together with Iran, South Korea, the Netherlands, and Trinidad and Tobago. This 12 months I’m simply delighted with the help we’ve acquired. In a rustic that generally treats poetry like third class residents, to see company world coming ahead simply pleases me and we simply have to offer thanks,” mentioned Yasus Afari.